Quotes from Dick Vitale

One of my biggest gifts ever, my mother made a Yankee uniform for me as a little boy, and I wore it to bed dreaming I could pitch in the major leagues and then be a Yankee.

Today in coaching, it's a two-way street. They can fire you whenever they want. Bottom line: It's all about what you can do to better yourself professionally. This is a better move.

TV critics came after me for overhyping LeBron. A lot of people don't know this, but I didn't want to do the game. I told ESPN, 'We're making this kid into something special.' I always follow orders, whatever my people want me to do.

I got fired - November 8, 1979. And all of a sudden, I got a call, two weeks later, about doing a game on ESPN. And I truly said - Scotty Connal, the head of ESPN production at the time, was the guy that called me - I said, 'Man, ESPN sounds like a disease. What is ESPN? I know nothing about it, never heard of it.'

I'm a basketball guy. No sitcom guy. I don't care about all that jazz. I care about basketball. It's not me. And I stayed with what I did, and I'm very proud that I did that because I make a great living and I'm lucky and I get to be involved with the thing I truly love, and that's the game of basketball.

The NCAA model is outdated. If Steve Serby's a great player in high school, and an agent wants to represent you and wants to advance you money as a loan based on the fact that you're gonna be a high draft choice, so be it.

I'm living the American dream.

I still love the game. I still feel like I'm a 25-year-old. I really still love the game and feel as enthusiastic about the game as I ever have felt about it.

A winner is someone who can look in the mirror at the end of the day and say in pursuit of my goal and dreams I gave my best.